Uniflow steam-engine



C. WAINWRIGHT.

UNIFLOW STEAM EINGINE.

APPLICATIQN FILED APR.26. I919.

1,348,672. PatentedAug. 3,1920.

a'vwewto z v Charles Wainwrbght w aww CHARLES WAINWRIGHT, E ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

UNIFLOW STEAM-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

, Patented Aug. 3, 1920.

Application'filed. April 26, 1919. Serial No. 292,789.

. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES WAIN- WRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding at Erie, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Uniflow Steam- Engines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my present invention is the provision of an uniflow steam engine of improved and advantageous character in that it embodies auxiliary exhaust valves that are positively opened by live steam controlled by valves, one to each auxiliary exhaust valve, and are closed automatically by the action of springs; each .of the auxiliary exhaust valves being connected so as to be subject to the rise and fall of pressure at the side of the piston remote from said valve.

To the attainment of the foregoing the invention consists in the novel combinations and adaptation of elements as hereinafter described and definitely claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, hereby made a part hereof:

The figure is a sectional view of the engine constituting the best practical embodiment of my invention that I have as yet devised.

Referring specifically tovsaid drawing:

1 is a piston cylinder that is preferably, though not necessarily, provided with vacuum spaces 2, and is therefore adapted to function in preventing cylinder condensation and radiation. The vacuum in spaces 2 may be created in' any approved manner as by the use of a pump.

Surrounding the cylinder 1 at an intermediate point is an exhaust chamber 3, connected through a circular series of ports 4 with the interior of the cylinder, and having a discharge orifice 5.- Near the heads of the cylinder and spaced with their outer ends about the proportional distance illustrated from said heads are elongated auxiliary exhaust ports 6.

8 and 9 are valve casings in which are valves 10 and 11 backed by springs 12 and adapted to control ports 13 and 14, respectively. 15 is a conduit adapted to lead from a source of live steam supply into a chamber 16 that is in communication with the valve casings 8 and 9. 17 and 18 are conduits intermediate the casings 8 and 9, at points below the orifices 13 and 14, and the ends of the cylinder 1, and 30 and 31 are r the casings of my novel auxiliary exhaust valves, the said casings being connected at one side of their valve-seats 32 with the ports 6, and at the opposite sides of the said seats with the exhaust orifice 5. The said casings 30 and 31 are provided with tubular receptacles 33 to receive the hollow stems 34 of the auxiliary exhaust valves A and B; the said stems receiving springs 35 which are interposed between the ends thereof and the opposed cylinder wall.

Interposed between the receptacles 33 and the conduits 17 and 18 are pipes or other conduits 40 and'4l; the conduit 40 complementary to the conduit 17 being carried to the receptacle 33 farthest from the conduit 17, and the conduit 41 complementary to the conduit 18 being carried to-the other receptacle 33-71. e., the receptacle of the auxiliary exhaust valve A that is adjacent to the end of the cylinder remote from the conduit 18.

The valves 10 and 11 are designed to be .opened by mechanical means such as shown.

This means is of ordinary well known construction, and inasmuch as it is not of my invention, I have deemed it unnecessary to describe the same.

In the practical operation of my invention, if it be assumed that the piston O is in the position illustrated, and'the valve 11 is opened by the mechanical means mentioned, it will be apparent that the live steam in the upper portion of the chamber 9 will pass ,through the conduit 18 and act against the piston C to move the same toward the left. At the same time live steam will pass from the conduit 18 through pipe 41 to the receptacle 33 of the auxiliary exhaust valve A. This steam unseats the exhaust valve A, with the result that compression at the left hand side of the piston during a large part of the said traverse of the piston past 'the ports 4 is practically doneaway with. It will also be appreciated in this connection that by reason of the port 6, compression at the left hand side of the piston is averted until the piston closel approaches the adjacent cylinder head. he port 6 is located as near the adjacent cylinder head as possible, so that at the extremity of itsstroke toward the left, the piston ring D just passes the outer end of the port 6, and in this connection it will be noticed that such a small space is left in the cylinder at the left-hand end of the piston C after said piston covers the port 6, that the compression cannot pass through the pipe connection 40 and raise the auxil- ,iary exhaust mlve B. lVith the piston vC at the left hand end of its traverse the cylinder, the auxiliary exhaust valve A is closed, this being due to the fact that the pressure in the cylinder at the right hand side of the piston C has been entirely exhausted. Then as the valve .10 opens, live steam passes through the conduit 17 and also through the pipe *0 to force the piston C toward the right and to raise the auxiliary exhaust valve B from its seat, as well as to bring about a repetition of the operation described in detail at the right hand end of the cylinder, and complete the cycle of operation.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters-Patent,

The combination in a uniflow steam engine, of a cylinder having exhaust means at an intermediate point in lts length, and also having auxiliary exhaust means adjacent to its ends, a piston in said cylinder, valve-controlled conduits intermediate a source of steam supply and the ends of the cylinder, an exhaust chamber having an eduction orifice and surrounding the cylinder in com munication with the first-named exhaust means, auxiliary exhaust valves intermediate said auxiliary exhaust means and said chamber, said valves'having tubular stems closed at their outer ends and open at their inner ends, receptacles receiving and guiding said stems, springs sheathed in the stems and interposed between the closed ends thereof and opposed abutments, a conduit intermediate one of the valve-controlled conduits and the valve receptacle remote from said conduit, and a conduit intermediate the other valvecontrolled conduit and the valve receptacle remote from said valve-controlled conduit, the conduit connections to the valve re ceptacles being arranged at the outer ends of said receptacles.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature.

CHARLES WAINWRIGHT. 

